Grants for trees, stewardship

County project supports landowner efforts to protect water quality

Zurich-area man one of many landowners who have completed water-quality projects on their properties with incentives from Huron County Clean Water Project

Huron County’s Clean Water Project has helped county residents and community groups complete more than 1,800 water-quality projects over the past ten years. Stu Steckle, of the Zurich area, is one of more than a thousand landowners who have done projects on their properties with county grants to help make these improvements possible. As part of a series of articles about local landowners doing water-quality projects in Huron County, Stu was visited on an unseasonably warm December day. He was asked to share why he has planted hundreds of trees on his property through four planting projects. “I like having trees around and my wife likes trees too,” Stu said.

Stuart and Ruth Ann Steckle own Staholme Farms and Black Ovation Purebred Angus on Bronson Line, northwest of Zurich. Programs like the Huron County Clean Water Project help make it possible to do new projects, according to the Zurich-area Angus beef farmer. “It gets you started,” he said. “It lowers the cost and it makes it more affordable.”

Planting trees can help to preserve topsoil, reduce erosion, capture runoff, and keep sediment and bacteria from reaching creeks, rivers, and lakes. Stu has been planting trees since the 1980s but he said “I wish I had started earlier.” His tree planting projects have included native species including Maple, Black Walnut, and Cedars. “The Cedars are looking better all the time,” he said. “I would encourage anybody to start planting trees early.”

The Steckle farms total about 150 acres in size. Staff from Ausable Bayfield Conservation planted some of the trees at the Steckle farm. Many of the trees are planted between the farm and the creek. Some of the trees near the creek are planted where cattle were pastured at one time. Stu is one of the landowners who has eliminated cattle access to a creek and planted in valley lands. This protects water quality at his property and in nearby rivers and Lake Huron.

As well as having completed projects with some grant support from the Huron County Clean Water Project, Stu has also completed an Environmental Farm Plan and has done stewardship projects, such as manure storage improvements, working with the Ontario Soil and Crop Improvement Association.

Stu has lived his whole life on the farm which his father bought in the 1920s. Stu was a dairy producer before switching to beef in 2007. Stu and Ruth Ann have two grown children: Dustin, who is a Bachelor of Commerce graduate of the University of Guelph and who works in the seed and crop industry as Regional Manager for Eastern Canada with Verdesian Life Sciences, and Julie Theurer, an Adjunct Professor at Western University in the School of Communication Sciences and Disorders. The Steckles also have two grandchildren.

There are many water-quality benefits to tree planting and windbreaks. There are other reasons to plant trees too. Stu and Ruth Ann like having birds around and they like the colours of the trees in autumn. Stu said he has enjoyed the autumn colours while visiting Vermont but there are also gorgeous autumn views here in Huron County in Ontario, Canada. He recalls one day sitting on his tractor and noticing the brilliant fall colours of a neighbour’s nearby woodlot. “You couldn’t paint a picture like that,” he said.

The Huron County Clean Water Project has celebrated its tenth year of supporting water quality improvements. The County of Huron has continued to support this grant program every year since its inception. Stu is one of the hundreds of landowners who have completed water quality projects with support of the county program. Projects include tree planting and windbreaks. Trees along watercourses improve water quality and provide wildlife habitat and travel corridors. Windbreaks can help mark property lines and provide a barrier to wind and water erosion. Windbreaks can keep drifting snow away from homes and farms, reduce winter heating costs, keep spray application from leaving the field, reduce soil erosion, reduce wind stress on field crops, protect livestock from extremes of heat and cold, and more.

In addition to tree planting and cover crop incentives the Huron County Clean Water Project provides up to 50 per cent grant support for projects in categories that include; manure storage decommissioning; clean water diversion; wetland creation and rural stormwater management; fragile land retirement; livestock fencing; well decommissioning; wellhead protection; forest management plans and woodlot enhancement; stewardship guide implementation; and composting toilets special projects. Funding from the County of Huron can be combined with other cost–share programs and landowner contributions.

The Huron Clean Water Project is funded by the County of Huron. Service delivery is provided by the Maitland Valley and Ausable Bayfield conservation authorities. Landowners may call by phone to apply. Phone Maitland Conservation at 519-335-3557 or Ausable Bayfield Conservation at 519-235-2610 or toll-free 1-888-286-2610. The next review committee meeting is February 5, 2016. Applications are accepted on an ongoing basis. For more information visit mvca.on.ca, abca.on.ca, or huroncounty.ca.

Backgrounder – Huron County Clean Water Project

The Huron County Clean Water Project is celebrating ten years of providing grants which have helped county residents to do more than 1,800 projects to improve water quality. Grants from the County of Huron, through the Huron Clean Water Project, have helped residents to plant more than 160 hectares of trees; complete more than 500 tree planting projects; fence cattle out of 40 kilometres of streams; plant more than 100 kilometres of windbreaks; have 75 liquid manure storages decommissioned; complete eight forest management plans; upgrade more than 300 private wells; complete more than 140 erosion control projects; and decommission more than 400 unused wells. The County of Huron provides funds for the Huron Clean Water Project and the Maitland Valley and Ausable Bayfield conservation authorities provide service delivery for residents.

People in Huron County have completed water quality projects valued at more than $8 million with about one quarter of that coming from Huron Clean Water Project grants. Ben Van Diepenbeek is chairman of the project review committee. He said the success has been possible because county council and ratepayers have shown their support for water quality, because the two conservation authorities have been able to work closely with residents to make it easy to apply for and complete projects, and because individual farmers, rural landowners, and community groups have shown their commitment by completing projects. “For every dollar invested by the county, another three and a half dollars’ worth of work gets done thanks to the additional contributions of landowners and other funding programs,” he said.

• People in Huron County have completed water quality projects valued at more than $8 million with about one quarter of that coming from Huron Clean Water Project grants.

• The ratio of total reported value to grants paid is more than 3.7 to 1 – that means for every dollar the County of Huron has invested an additional $3.70 has been spent on environmental projects thanks to contributions from landowners and other sources (for example, other funding programs).

• Conservation authority delivery staff complete the paperwork required and this makes things easy for landowners to take part

• All landowners in Huron County are eligible to apply for grants through Huron County Clean Water Project

• No pre-qualification workshops or courses are required to submit an application and receive a grant payment

• Funding to landowners can sometimes be combined with other cost-share programs, when other programs are available

More about windbreaks:

Ontario studies have shown increases in yields for field crops buffered by windbreaks. Research in Southwestern Ontario shows corn yields at least six per cent higher in areas sheltered by windbreaks and soybean yields about 25 per cent higher in sheltered areas compared to open areas. A stateside study in Nebraska indicated hay yields as 20 per cent higher in sheltered areas than open areas. Increased yields aren’t the only benefits to windbreaks. Area farmers were quoted in a recent Ontario brochure speaking to the noticeable advantages they saw in windbreaks. Those advantages included earlier germination of crops, earlier warming of soils, reducing the potential for odour to travel to adjacent properties, and increased yields extending about 10 feet into the field for every foot of tree height.